I received the Field of Glory rulebooks in the post yesterday and immediately checked the basing conventions for all three the systems, Ancients, Renaissance and Napoleonics, and I think they are the way forward, at least as far as basing goes. I haven't had enough time to really give the rules a proper read through, but I will hopefully get around to sharing my thoughts on each set of rules as and when I get a chance to play with them. I might even run some solo games and record my findings.
Suffice to say, they are very pretty, hopefully the content matches the form. Other reviews have been favourable, as far as I can tell, so I am expecting them to deliver. I have read through the first few sections of the Ancients book and have found them a nice change from the Barkerese of the DBx systems; and aren't they so much prettier? I find that rulebooks can be deeply inspiring, something which Messers Shuck and Hyde discussed on the View from the Veranda podcast, episode three I believe. I love flicking through the beautiful pages, imagining the various things I could do myself, then of course I come crashing down to earth when I realise that I have mountains to paint as is.
Which brings me onto the "recommended listening/viewing" part of the title. I have been listening to "back issues" of the Meeples and Miniatures podcast and View from the Veranda, and have found the stuff Mr. Shuck produces to be really useful, informative and above all a great companion for us wargamers who live sans club. The easy going conversational nature of the podcasts makes them a great soundtrack to paint to, especially when painting Soviet infantry. I must admit that I am somewhat inspired by Mr. Shuck's podcasting efforts, so much so that I am tempted to do some youtube videos for reviews, though I fear my efforts will pale in comparison to the Meeples and Miniatures video reviews. Despite catering to a very niche market, Mr. Shuck clearly puts a lot of effort into his podcasts and videos, and produces quality stuff. Sadly this is the exception rather than the rule in the wargaming hobby, which tends to be very amateurish. Naturally companies like Games Workshop and Battlefront have the budgets to make high end stuff, but it is great to see a "Rogue Trader" like Mr. Shuck produce stuff to rival it. Mr. Shuck might not have the "Hollywood" element, but he makes up for a less flashy look with more quality and useful content time and time again.
I have been looking on youtube for some reviews of gaming systems and sadly I only found some "unboxing" style videos, which while useful, often don't answer the questions that someone like Mr. Shuck addresses. Have a look at the Meeples and Miniatures youtube channel which has some good review videos. Also, I found the toofatlardies videos demonstrating Sharpe Practice to be really informative and well produced. Now, even though I said these were good videos, don't expect flashy stuff, these videos are useful and fit for purpose. My point is that they aren't just some guy ranting into a webcam wearing a cheetos-powder covered t-shirt, that is what I mean by amateurish.
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